Rob Long: God is Good, Drugs Are Better
The former Cheers producer talks faith, ayahuasca, and what it’ll take to bring back the blockbuster comedy.
Today's guest is comedy writer Rob Long, who served as a writer for and producer of the great sitcom Cheers for years, writes the weekly Martini Shot commentary, and cohosts the GLoP Culture podcast with Jonah Goldberg and John Podhoretz. He is a columnist for Commentary and a cofounder of Ricochet, the online community and podcast platform. At a live event in New York City, Reason's Nick Gillespie spoke with Long about whether Hollywood is out of ideas, what it's like being a libertarian-leaning conservative in a very progressive industry, and the role that psychedelics have played in his creative process.
Chapters:
0:00- Blockchain, Machine Learning, and Jesus
3:22- What's Scarier; God Or Guns?
8:59- Road To Damascus, Hollywood
13:45- Jesus: A Weird But Groovy Dude
17:30- A Hollywood Solution To Hell
22:50- A Psychedelic Life Lesson
29:48- Comedy As Aggression
32:09- MDMA: A Non-Specific Amplifier
34:25- O Hollywood Mega-Hit, Where Art Thou? 43:35- The Comedies That Made Rob Long
45:39- Q&A
Previous appearances:
- Rob Long: Welcome To the Age of Blunder in Public Health, Foreign Policy, and…Hollywood, August 11, 2023.
- How Rob Long Went from Cheers to National Review to LSD, December 2, 2020.
- Democratizing Gun Production, Education, and Media, December 26, 2018.
Today's sponsor:
- Nick Gillespie with Students for Sensible Drug Policy's Kat Murti, May 8. 2023. In a world where drug use and policy are rapidly changing, what role will younger people play in challenging legal and cultural prohibitions of psychoactive substances? Join us for a candid conversation with Kat Murti, the new executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which for over 25 years has been the leading voice on college campuses for changing laws and attitudes about psychedelics and other drugs. She will be interviewed by Reason Editor at Large Nick Gillespie and the conversation, including audience Q&A, will be recorded for a future episode of The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie podcast. Use the discount code REASON42 at checkout for 20 percent off all tickets.
- Video Editor: Ian Keyser